Queer Timeline

- select a date to learn more -

630-612 BCE

Greek female poet Sappho, whose poetry is centered on the love between women, is born. The word “lesbian” is derived from the name Lesbos, the island of Sappho’s birth.

“Songe de Sapho” [Sappho’s Dream]. Illustration by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, engraved by Henri-Guillaume Chatillon, in The Works by Anacreon, Sappho, Bion, and Moschus, 1827. Public domain image.

385-370 BCE

Plato’s philosophical text Symposium argues that love between males is the highest form of eros.

Fresco from the Tomb of the Diver, 475 BCE. Paestum Museum, Italy. Public domain image.

130

Antinoüs (117–138 CE), the lover of Roman Emperor Hadrian, drowns; in turn, Hadrian creates a cult giving Antinoüs the status of a god.

Bust of Antinoüs of Ecouen. 18th-century marble copy. The original came from the Villa Adriana and is now in the Prado Museum.

342

The Christian emperors Constantius II and Constans issue the first legal regulation against same sex marriage, with “exquisite punishment” meted out to those who marry “in the manner of a woman.”

The Warren Cup, 15 BC-AD 15, Levant. Collection of the British Museum.

c. 1314

Dante’s Inferno places sodomites in the 7th circle of Hell.

Sandro Botticelli, Inferno XV, c. 1480-95, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, The Vatican, MS Reg. lat 1896. Press image for “Botticelli’s Dante: The Drawings for The Divine Comedy,” Mar. 17-June 10, 2001, at the Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London.

1431

Jeanne d’Arc (1412-1431) is denounced by the Inquisition and burnt alive, in part for claiming it was “God’s command” for her to wear men’s clothes, keep her hair cut short, and keep “no garment which might indicate her sex.” She later would come to symbolize defiance of convention and become an icon of the woman’s suffrage movement.

Jeanne d’Arc depicted on horseback in an illustration from Vie Des Femmes Celebres, a c. 1505 manuscript via Musée Dobree, Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France. Public domain image.

1476

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) and three other men are charged in Florence with sodomy. They are later acquitted.

Portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci by Francesco Melzi (1493–1570), after 1510. Public domain image via the Royal Library, Windsor.

1533

The Buggery Act is passed in England, making all male-to-male sexual activity a crime punishable by hanging. The law was repealed in 1861.

Gay men in England kill themselves after being arrested in 1707. Image via Rictor Norton, A History of Homophobia, “The Medieval Basis of Modern Law” 15 April 2002, updated 15 June 2008. rictornorton.co.uk

1650

Sarah White Norman is convicted for “lewd behavior” with Mary Vincent Hammond. Her trial documents are the only surviving record of female same-sex relations in the 17th-century Puritan colonies.

 

1725

London’s most famous molly house, Mother Clap’s, is raided by the police. Three men are arrested and later executed. Molly houses were taverns or coffee-houses that were safe places for homosexuals and crossdressers to meet.

“A morning frolic, or, The transmutation of sexes From the original picture by John Collet, in the possession of Carington Bowles.” London : Printed for & sold by Carington Bowles, at his Map & Print Warehouse, No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, London, publish’d as the Act directs [25 March 1780]. Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.

1756

The French diplomat, spy, and soldier Chevalier d’Eon (1728-1810) is sent on a secret mission to Russia disguised as a lady. He later claims to physically be a woman. His new sexual identity is recognized by King Louis XVI, who provides him funds to buy new women’s clothing. However, after d’Eon’s death in 1810, doctors discover that he was anatomically male.

Chevalier d’Eon by Thomas Stewart, after Jean Laurent Mosnier, 1792, © National Portrait Gallery, London.

1780-83

An investigation by Commissioner Foucault and Inspector Noël of the Parisian police determines that some “pederasts” wear shoes with laces or bows, rather than buckles, as a sartorial code to identify each other in public.

1785

English social reformer Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) argues for the repeal of sodomy laws in his essay “On Paederasty”.

Jeremy Bentham, engraving by Samuel Freeman (1773-1857), date N.A. Image via the Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, NYPL. Public domain image.

1791

France becomes the first West European country to decriminalize homosexuality.

 

1822

Percy Jocelyn (1764-1843), Lord Bishop of Clogher, is famously caught with his pants down, literally, with a young soldier in a back room at the White Lion Pub in Haymarket, London, on the evening of 19 July 1822.

“Confirmation, or, the Bishop and the Soldier” printed, 1822. Image via Rictor Norton, “The Bishop of Clogher” The Gay Subculture in Georgian England. 5 April 2010. rictornorton.co.uk

1855

Count Robert de Montesquiou (1855-1921), the French dandy, aesthete, and poet, is born. Montesquieu, who preferred the company of attractive young men, was a well-known figure in Parisian high society and a promoter of Art Nouveau in France.

Robert de Montesquiou, photograph by Paul Nadar (1856-1939), February 6, 1895. Public domain image.

1861

In England, the death sentence for sodomy is removed and the penalty becomes imprisonment from 10 years to life.

 

1867

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895), the first self-proclaimed homosexual in Germany to speak out publicly for homosexual rights, is barred from giving a paper at a German legal conference in Munich proposing that same-sex relationships be de-criminalized.

Engraving of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, taken from Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, vol. 1 (1899). Public domain image.

1868

The German-Hungarian publicist Karl-Maria Kertbeny (1824-1882) coins the term “homosexual” in a letter to Karl Heinrich Ulrichs , the German sex law reformer who proposed the concept of “homosexuality” in 1864 in order to establish “a new terminology that would refer to the nature of the individual, and not to the acts performed.”

Portrait photo of Karl Maria Kertbeny, c. 1865. Public domain image.

1895

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) is prosecuted and sentenced to two years of hard labor in prison for “gross indecency.”

Portrait of Oscar Wilde in New York, 1882. Picture taken by Napoleon Sarony (1821-1896), # 18. Public domain image.

1915

Emma Goldman (1869-1940), an anarchist known for her political activism, goes on a speaking tour that includes the defense of homosexuality as one of its topics. Goldman was described by a contemporary as “the first and only woman, indeed the first and only American, to take up the defense of homosexual love before the general public.”

Photograph of Emma Goldman, c. 1911. Public domain image via Library of Congress.

1919

Doctor Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) founds the Institute for Sex Research in Berlin. “Soon the day will come when science will win victory over error, justice a victory over injustice, and human love a victory over human hatred and ignorance.”

Magnus Hirschfeld. Image via lgbthistorymonth.com

1921

An early recording of Mischa Spolianky‘s Das Lila Lied (The Lavendar Song). The song is considered a gay “anthem” of Berlin’s cabaret scene. A 1996 recording performed and recorded by Ute Lemper features lyrics in English.

 

1923

Sir Norman Hartnell (1901-1979) opens his dress salon in London. Hartnell was known for a flashy and glamorous style that sometimes approached drag-queen camp.

Portrait of Sir Norman Hartnell taken in Allan Warren’s London studio, 1972. Photograph by Allan Waren. Creative Commons license.

1924

The Society for Human Rights, the first homosexual rights organization in America, is formed in Chicago by Henry Gerber (1892-1972).

1924

English playwright, director, and actor Noël Coward (1899-1973) wears a dressing gown in his play The Vortex. Coward, a closeted gay man, became famous for his personal style, which TIME magazine describes as “a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise”.

Noël Coward with his co-star in The Vortex, English actress Lilian Braithwaite (1873-1948), c. 1924. Image via the George Grantham Bain collection, Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication.

1928

Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (1886-1939) sings “It’s true I wear a collar and a tie … Talk to the gals just like any old man” in her song Prove It on Me Blues. It’s the height of the Harlem Renaissance (originally called the New Negro Movement) and there is an unspoken tolerance for gays, lesbians, and bi-sexuals. Shown here is Gladys Bentley (1907-1960), a notorious and popular cross-dressing blues singer who performed at Harlem’s Clam House in a white tuxedo and top hat.

Gladys Bentley and bandleader Willie Bryant in front of posters for their Apollo show, NYC, April 17, 1936. Image via queermusicheritage.us No known copyright.

1930

The Danish artist Einar Wegener (1882-1931) becomes one of the first recorded recipients of gender reassignment surgery. Einar, who was married to the fashion illustrator Gerda Wegener, presented as a woman throughout the 1920s, often posing as his wife’s model using the name Lili Elbe. Einar began the first of 5 sex reassignment surgeries in 1930; however, the fifth operation in 1931 led to transplant rejection and her untimely death.

Left: Gerda Wegener illustration, Journal des Dames et des Modes, 1914. Public domain image.
Right: Lili Elbe circa 1930. No known copyright.

1930

Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) wears a man’s tuxedo in the film Morocco. Dietrich often performed in a top hat and tails, and also wore pants in her personal life, making her an early adopter of the androgynous look.

Marlene Dietrich, Morocco, 1930. Photo by Eugene Robert Richee, courtesy of Deutsche Kinemathek—Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin.

1931

The first explicitly lesbian film Girls in Uniform, is released in Germany.

US VHS video box cover via Wikipedia.com.

1933

The National Socialist German Workers Party bans homosexuality, sending homosexuals to concentrations camps.

 

1936

Federico García Lorca (1898-1936), a Spanish poet and known homosexual, is murdered at the beginning of the Spanish civil war. Some believe it is because of his sexual orientation.

Federico García Lorca and Philip H.Cummings (1906-1991) in Vermont, 1929. Press image for “Interpreting Lorca” / Radio Lorca. Image via Fundación FGL.

1937-38

The pink triangle, or Rosa Winkel, is used to identify and shame gay men in Nazi concentrations camps. In the 1980s, ACTUP reappropriates this symbol so that it may represent gay pride.

Mug shot of a homosexual prisoner in Auschwitz. State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Oświęcim, Poland. Permitted fair use by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.

1939

Mona’s 440 Club, the first American lesbian bar, opens in San Francisco. Mona’s waitresses and female performers wear tuxedos.

Male impersonators at Mona’s in North Beach, c. 1945. Standing (l to r): “Butch,” Jan Jansen, Kay Scott, Jimmy Renard. Seated: (l to r): “Mike,” Beverly Shaw, unidentified, “Mickey”. Photo courtesy of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society.

1947

Christian Dior (1905-1957) launches the New Look, an ultra-feminine style, characterized by voluptuous curves and longer hemlines. The sight of women in Dior’s New Look gowns is seen by Coco Chanel “as a red flag on a bull.” Gay filmmaker Franco Zefferelli describes Chanel hissing at girls: “Look at them. Fools, dressed by queens living out their fantasies. They dream of being women so they make real women look like transvestites… they can barely walk. I made clothes for the new woman. She could move and live naturally in my clothes. Now look at what those creatures have done. They don’t know women, they’ve never had a woman.”

Christian Dior, cocktail ensemble in aubergine silk faille, 1953-1954, France, Museum at FIT, 71.267.3, gift of Mrs. William Randolph Hearst, Jr.

1950

The Mattachine Society, the first American homosexual group, is created in Los Angeles. Gay fashion designer Rudi Gernreich (1922-1985), credited for designing the first topless swimsuit (monokini) and unisex clothing, is a founding member of the association.

“Homosexuals are Different” Mattachine Society of New York poster, 1960. New York Public Library.

1952

ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives is founded. It is the oldest active LGBTQ organization in the United States and today is the largest repository of LGBTQ materials in the world.

Image courtesy of ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.

1952

Christine Jorgensen (1926-1989) becomes the first person widely known to undergo male-to-female sex reassignment surgery.

 

1955

The Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), the first national lesbian political organization, is founded in San Francisco. In October 1956, they produce the first US lesbian publication to be distributed nationwide.

The Ladder. July 1957. Human Sexuality Collection, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.

1957

American magazine Physique Pictorial features a Tom of Finland (1920-1991) illustration of a two log drivers on its cover. Tom of Finland’s homoerotic drawings depicting lumberjacks, leather men, bikers and sailors would inspire the “Castro-clone” look (fit leather or Levi jeans, plaid shirts, jackets, boots, heavy moustache and sideburns) that would appear in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood during the 1970s.

 

1957

The Wolfenden Committee report is published in Britain. The report recommends that “homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence” in the United Kingdom.

 

1957

Psychologist Evelyn Hooker (1907-1996) publishes a paper of a study demonstrating that there is no measurable psychological difference between heterosexual and homosexual men. This later becomes a chief factor in the American Psychiatric Association’s removal of homosexuality from its handbook of disorders in 1973.

 

1958

The United States Supreme Court rules in favor of the first Amendment rights of ONE: The Homosexual Magazine. Two lower court decisions had argued the magazine violated the 1873 Comstock Act, which prohibited sending “obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious” material through the mail.

ONE: The Homosexual Magazine cover, March 1957. Image courtesy of ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.

1960

Lesbian poet Mercedes de Acosta (1883-1968) publishes her autobiography, Here Lies the Heart. De Costa was professionally unsuccessful, but is remembered for her lesbian relationships with Isadora Duncan, Greta Garbo, and Marlene Dietrich. She donated many items from the wardrobe of her fashionable sister, Rita de Acosta Lydig (1880-1929), to the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Photograph of Mercedes de Acosta by Arnold Genthe (1869-1942), 1919. Library of Congress. Public domain image.

1962

Illiinois is the first state to remove criminal penalties for consensual sodomy from its criminal code.

 

1965

Gays and lesbians picket outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the first of five July 4th “Annual Reminders” organized to bring attention to the lack of civil rights protections for the LGBT community.

Frank Kameny (1925-2011) in picket line. Photograph by Kay Tobin. Image via Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen gay history papers and photographs, NYPL. Educational web use permitted.

1966

Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008) introduces his le smoking tuxedo suit. Unlike in the 1930s, this attempt at menswear for women hits a nerve. Sartorial rules still frowned on women wearing pants, but times were changing and le smoking was a sophisticated choice.

Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, le smoking suit, c.1972. Press image for Black in Fashion, The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

1967

The term “Pride” is associated for the first time with LGBT rights when the Black Cat Tavern, an LGBT bar in Los Angeles, is raided on New Year’s Day. The raid propels numerous protests organized by P.R.I.D.E. (Personal Rights in Defense and Education), whose small newsmagazine was renamed The Advocate and notably reported on the Stonewall riots in New York City two years later.

Image via The Advocate

1969

Gay Saville Row designer Tommy Nutter (1943-1992) dresses 3 out of the four Beatles for the cover of the album Abbey Road (George Harrison elected to be photographed in jeans). Nutter mixed traditional tailoring skills with innovative designs. He died of complications from AIDS in 1992.

 

1969

A series of violent protests against police raids take place at Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn, a bar popular with the gay community. Police raids in gay bars were routine and the riots were a groundswell reaction to systemic marginalization and persecution. The Stonewall riots lasted for several days and changed the direction of the LGBT movement.

We were tired of being targets of manipulation and exploitation; tired of being maggot excuses for raids upon our assembly, tired of being someone else’s scapegoat for some other reason. Tired of being threatened and harassed and entrapped and told what we were, what to do, and how to do it, when to do it, how to feel, what to say, how to be, what to be..ya can’t be it outside, nor can you inside! –Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee member, 1974

Stonewall Inn, Greenwich Village, New York City, September 1969. Photograph by Diana Davies. Image via Diana Davies photographs, 1965-1978, NYPL / Manuscripts and Archives Division. Educational web use permitted.

1970

The first gay Liberation Day March is held in New York City on June 28, 1970, marking the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots. On that same weekend in 1970, three other U.S. cities — Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco — also hold commemorative marches. Today, all over the world, pride marches in June honor the spirit of the Stonewall riots and celebrate LGBT history, culture, and equality.

GAA and Vito Russo marching in 1st Christopher St Liberation Day Parade. Photograph by Kay Tobin. Image via Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen gay history papers and photographs, NYPL. Educational web use permitted.

1971

Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008) poses nude for the advertising campaign of his men’s fragrance Pour Homme.

Yves Saint Laurent Pour Homme fragrance ad, 1971. Photograph by Jeanloup Sieff. © Estate Jeanloup Sieff.

1971

The Cockettes, a psychedelic drag queen troupe from San Francisco, perform at the Anderson Theater in NYC. The Cockettes combined dancing, costumes, and rebellious sexuality in flamboyant shows, inspiring the glitter era of David Bowie, Elton John and the aesthetic of the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Pristine Condition, Marshall Olds, Cockette Bobby, Danny Isley and Link Martin in their lavender-filled backyard on Oak Street, SF, 1971. Photograph by Fayette Hauser. Press image for drkrm exhibition, Children of Paradise: Life with The Cockettes / San Francisco 1969-1972, 2011.

1972

Jim Foster (1934-1990) and Madeline Davis (b.1940) speak at the Democratic national convention as the first openly gay and lesbian delegates. They advocate adding a gay rights plank to the Democratic platform.

“We do not come to you begging your understanding or pleading your tolerance. We come to you affirming our pride in our lifestyle, affirming the validity of our right to seek and to maintain meaningful emotional relationships and affirming our right to participate in the life of this country on an equal basis with every citizen.”

 

1973

The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-II).

 

1974

Kathy Kozachenko is the first openly gay American to run successfully for public office. She is elected to the Ann Arbor city council.

Image via arborwiki.org.

1977

French designer Claude Montana (b.1949) presents his first fashion show. Montana pioneered the introduction of leather from erotic street styles into high fashion—for both men and women.

 

1977

Harvey Milk (1930-1978) is elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors and proposes an ordinance that will protect gays and lesbians from being fired for their sexual orientation.

Harvey Milk speaks at the Los Angeles Christopher Street West pride parade. 1978. Photograph by Pat Rocco. Image courtesy of ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.

1977

Dade County, Florida, enacts a Human Rights Ordinance that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The ordinance is repealed the same year after an anti-homosexual campaign led by singer and former Miss Oklahoma Anita Bryant. As a response to Bryant’s political success, gay groups organize a boycott of Florida Citrus products for which Bryant was the spokesperson.

Button distributed by opponents to the Save Our Children campaign, 1977. Image via The Pin Button Project.

1978

San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk (1930-1978) is assassinated.

Personal belongings of Harvey Milk on display during the preview of The GLBT History Museum in San Francisco’s Castro District: a “Harvey Milk/Supervisor” campaign t-shirt; a pair of his Levi’s jeans; his appointment book for 1977; his personal-safety whistle; his harmonica; and a pair of pink novelty sunglasses owned by Milk. Photograph by Gerard Koskovich. Creative Commons license.

1978

The rainbow flag, designed by Gilbert Baker, makes its debut in the Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco.

Rainbow flag. Photograph by Ludovic Bertron. Creative Commons license.

1979

75,000 to 125,000 people attend the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

The National March On Washington for Lesbian And Gay Rights, October 14, 1979 button. Image via kamenypapers.org (donated to Museum of American History, Smithsonian.)

1979

The Radical Faeries, a counter cultural movement, is founded by Harry Hay (1912-2002). Radical Faeries reject traditional gender roles and challenge the commercialization of LGBT life. The members of the group look for a spiritual dimension to sexuality.

Harry Hay marching with the Radical Faeries, a group he helped found. Date and photographer unknown. Image courtesy of ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.

1979

The street performer/protest group The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence make their debut in San Francisco. Members wear the attire of nuns and do not hide their male attributes (i.e. facial hair). They protest intolerance and educate people about AIDS and safe sex.

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, New York City, March 2008. Photograph by David Shankbone. GNU Free Documentation License.

1980

The Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest LGBT civil rights organization, is founded by Steve Endean.

 

1982

The CDC uses the term AIDS for the first time to name the condition previously called gay cancer, gay compromise syndrome, and GRID (gay-related immune deficiency).

 

1982

The Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the world’s first and leading provider of HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and advocacy, finds its informal beginning when an answering machine in the home of volunteer Rodger McFarlane acts as the first AIDS hotline — receiving over 100 calls the first night.

 

1982

A Charles James (1906-1978) retrospective, The Genius of Charles James, opens at the Brooklyn Museum. The Anglo-American couturier was quite open about his homosexuality. “James was gay from birth, I think,” the illustrator Hilary Knight told Valerie Steele in an interview. “He was very sexy. He talked about sex all the time.”

Hilary Knight, “Workroom of Charles James,” 2013. Image courtesy of Hilary Knight.

1982

To announce his men’s underwear collection, American designer Calvin Klein (b.1942) displays a billboard in Times Square featuring an image of a muscular man wearing white briefs. Guy Trebay commented on the seminal underwear ad: “In [making this ad], Mr. Klein was marking the beginning of both major changes in the conventions of masculine presentation and an overall democratization of desire.”

Calvin Klein billboard in Times Square, NY, 1982. Photograph courtesy of Andy Levin.

1983

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center is founded in NYC. The Center serves those in crisis: the young, the elderly, people living with HIV and AIDS, survivors of anti-gay or anti-lesbian violence, people struggling with substance abuse, and gay people and their friends and families overwhelmed by the devastating toll of the AIDS epidemic.

 

1984

DIFFA: Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS is founded by Patricia Green and Larry Pond. DIFFA has mobilized the immense resources of the design communities and granted over $40 million to hundreds of AIDS service organizations nationwide. DIFFA’s co-founder, Larry Pond, died of AIDS in 1992 at age 42.

 

1984

Fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier (b.1952) introduces a skirt for men in his Spring/Summer 1985 collection Et Dieu Créa L’Homme. While his collections have been based on street wear, his runway shows often play with traditional gender roles.

 

1985

The Hetrick-Martin Institute (est.1979) founds the groundbreaking Harvey Milk High School in collaboration with the New York City Department of Education. The school is devoted to serving at-risk youth.

 

1985

NAMES project AIDS Memorial Quilt, a gigantic quilt made to commemorate the lives of people who have died of AIDS related causes, is conceived by gay rights activist Cleve Jones (b.1954).

AIDS quilt, Washington, D.C., date unknown. Photograph by Carol Highsmith. Image via the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication.

1985

Fashion designer, performer, and model Leigh Bowery (1961-1994) opens the infamous disco club Taboo in London. Bowery’s performances and gender-bending costumes would heavily influence, among others, pop singer Boy George and designer Alexander McQueen.

Leigh Bowery, The Metropolitan, c. 1988. © Courtesy of the artist’s estate. Press image from the exhibition Mix Tape 1980s: Appropriation, Subculture, Critical Style at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 2013.

1985

American actor Rock Hudson dies on October 2, 1985 of complications related to AIDS. Known for his debonair charm and striking good looks, he starred as a Hollywood leading man in films opposite Doris Day, Elizabeth Taylor, and Julie Andrews. The first major Hollywood celebrity to publicly announce his AIDS diagnosis, Hudson’s announcement prompted a wider public awareness of the epidemic.

 

1986

Fashion designer Perry Ellis (1940-1986) dies of AIDS-related encephalitis. Ellis was an innovative designer who understood traditional American clothing yet played with proportion, thereby altering it for a new generation.

Perry Ellis, sweater and skirt set, 1980, USA . Museum at FIT, 2001.51.1, gift of Kellowood New England Division.

1987

ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) is founded at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York in response to the US government’s failure to address the AIDS crisis.

“Silence = Death” poster, ACT UP New York records / Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL. With regard to any items in which ACT UP held copyrights, ACT UP has decreed those materials to be held in public domain.

1987

Fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez (1943-1987) dies of complications from AIDS. Lopez, who was born in Puerto Rico and moved to NYC at age 7, explored topics like queerness, ethnicity, and fashion in his drawing. “At his peak, he was as famous as Marc Jacobs is now. He was the biggest person in the fashion industry,” says Roger Padilha, an editor, along with his brother Mauricio, in Antonio Lopez: Fashion, Art, Sex & Disco.

Antonio, Karl Lagerfeld, and Pat Cleveland, Paris, 1970. Photo: Courtesy of Paul Caranicas / Copyright Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos / Roger and Mauricio Padilha’s new book, Antonio Lopez: Fashion, Art, Sex & Disco (Rizzoli).

1987

Liberace (1919-1987), the American pianist and vocalist, dies of pneumonia caused by AIDS. Liberace was famous for performing in extravagant sequined costumes, feathered capes, and furs. During his lifetime, Liberace denied being gay—and successfully sued someone who said he was. Nevertheless, he has become a gay icon.

Performance ensemble by Frank Acuna worn by Liberace Sequins, fur, and polyester, 1977, USA, courtesy of The Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts. Photograph by Eileen Costa.

1987

African-American fashion designer Willi Smith (1948-1987) dies at age 39 of AIDS-related illnesses. Smith was one of the fashion industry’s most successful young designers at the time of his passing.

Image via fashionrevolutionaries.com. Provenance unknown.

1989

The Love Ball at Roseland raises more than $300,000 for Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA).

 

1989

American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989), known for his homoerotic pictures of nude men, dies of complications arising from AIDS.

Robert Mapplethorpe self-portrait, 1983. Sale image by Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac on Artnet.com

1989

Painter Keith Haring (1958-1990) reveals he is HIV positive. Haring’s work was inspired by New York city street culture of the 1980’s.

“Silence = Death” poster, ACT UP New York records / Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL. With regard to any items in which ACT UP held copyrights, ACT UP has decreed those materials to be held in public domain.

1990

The first annual “7th on Sale” event, produced by CDFA co-founders Stan Herman and Fern Mallis, is a huge success, raising over 4 million dollars for AIDS/HIV research.

 

1990

Fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick (1932-1990) dies from AIDS at age 57. Halston’s minimalist approach to fashion epitomized the glamour of the disco era in the 1970s.

Halston evening ensemble, c. 1973, USA. Museum at FIT, 81.250.2, gift of Mrs. Jane Holzer.

1992

Billboards by artist Félix González-Torres (1957-1996), depicting an empty bed, are displayed around New York City. The monochromatic image for “Untitled” (1991) MOMA project was taken after González-Torres’s partner died due to AIDS related complications.

Installation at 31-33 Second Ave. at East Second Street, Manhattan, for Project 34: Felix Gonzalez-Torres at MoMA, New York, 1992. ©The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation

1992

Model and fashion icon Tina Chow (1950-1992) dies of complications from AIDS at the age of 41. Tina and her husband Michael were part of a New York scene that included Manolo Blahnik, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mary Boone, Keith Haring, Antonio Lopez, Julian Schnable, and Andy Warhol.

Tina Chow wears Issey Miyake, NYC, 1983. Photograph by Marcus Leatherdale via A Shaded View on Fashion.

1992

George Michael (b.1963) commissions Thierry Mugler (b.1948) to direct this video for his hit song “Too Funky.” You can also watch the “making of” video here.

 

1993

The US military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell“ policy is instituted.

 

1993

Brandon Teena (1972-1993), a female to male transgender person, is murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska.

 

1993

Tony Kushrer’s Angels in America, a play on the AIDS epidemic, opens on Broadway.

Playbill from Angels in America at the Walter Kerr Theatre, 1993-94.

1993

Bill Robinson (1948-1993), American pioneering designer of fashions for men, dies of AIDS-related complications. Robinson’s soft-shoulder jackets offered an alternative to the “power look” of the 1980s.

 

1994

John Bartlett, “the Gaultier of American’s wear,” creates a men’s collection inspired by the film Forrest Gump, Jean Genet, and cross-dressing.

 

1996

DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Acts), a law that defines marriage as the legal union of one man and one women, passes both houses of congress. DOMA restricts LGBT partnership rights.

 

1997

Television sitcom character Ellen Morgan comes out as a lesbian on TV show Ellen, making actress Ellen DeGeneres (b.1958) the first out gay actress to play a lesbian character on television.

 

1997

Gay fashion designer Gianni Versace (1946-1997) is murdered in Miami Beach. Versace combined overt sexuality with luxurious classicism in ensembles that referenced ancient Roman and Greek art, abstract painting, and Pop art. The Italian designer often used homoerotic images in his advertising.

 

1998

Matthew Shepard (1976-1998), a young gay student, is murdered in Laramie, Wyoming.

 

1999

Actress Natasha Richardson, member of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), organizes Unforgettable: Fashion of the Oscar, an auction of Oscar dresses. Richardson’s father, theater and film director Tony Richardson died of AIDS-related causes in 1991.

 

2004

Massachusetts becomes the first state to legalize gay marriage. The court finds the prohibition of gay marriage unconstitutional because it denies dignity and equality of all individuals. In the following six years, California, Connecticut, Iowa , Vermont, New Hampshire, and Washington D.C. will follow suit.

 

2006

At the end of avant-garde designers Viktor & Rolf’s Spring 2007 show in Paris, four couples of men wearing tuxedos dance to the waltz. “We live in a heterosexual world, and we are a minority… if two men dancing at our show is still shocking, even in the fashion world, it says something about what is accepted and what is not,” Victor and Rolf stated.

Runway photograph by Marcio Madeira via Style.com

2010

The ‘Don’t ask, Don’t tell’ law, is repealed, ending a 17-year ban on gays serving openly in the military.

 

2010

British designer Alexander McQueen (1969-2010) is found dead at his home in London. “My collections have always been autobiographical,” said McQueen, “a lot to do with my own sexuality and coming to terms with the person I am – it was like exorcizing my ghosts in the collections.”

 

2011

Fashion designer and “Project Runway” judge Michael Kors (b.1959) and his partner Lance LePere are married in Southampton, NY ,after a bill permitting same sex marriages comes into effect in New York State.

Lance LePere and Michael Kors attend the “One Man, Two Guvnors” Broadway opening night at the Music Box Theatre on April 18, 2012 in New York City. Photographer Cindy Ord.

2012

Wearing brightly colored dresses and balaclavas members of the Russian feminist punk-rock collective Pussy Riot stage an illegal performance to protest against Vladimir Putin at the Moscow cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Three members of the group were charged with hooliganism and sentenced to two years imprisonment.

 

2012

Target casts gay couples in its wedding registry ads.

 

2013

Actress Jodie Foster (b.1962), wearing silver and navy paillettes by Armani, publicly acknowledges that she is gay at the Golden Globes Awards.

 

2013

A key part of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is struck down by the Supreme Court. The court declares that in states where marriage is legal, gay couples must receive the same federal health, tax, Social Security, and other benefits that heterosexual couples receive.

 

2018

Central Michigan University offers new course titled ‘Queer Fashion’ inspired by the exhibition.

 

2019

Taiwan becomes first in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. The Washington Post